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Team Tigers

About Us

Hello! We are a Design Thinking Team from Tilden Middle School. "Work hard, help other team members, and always try to do your best! Our team members are "bold Brionna, creative Khail, savvy Saviyon, clever Khyree and magnanimous Mekhi." We believe it takes hard work and team work to make the dream work.

You get the Persistence award. It looks like you keep working hard at this. We kept running into problems too. sometimes students would act up and our teacher would call us back to class. We have a move up day for our 8th graders as motivation. Maybe find something that helps at your school with the 8th graders to help them be motivated. We like your idea. Kepp it up!!!

Our Progress

Nice work! We loved the video and all of your creative ideas! Did you know creativity is a skill, and you can get better with practice? Play this game throughout the year (you can use all kinds of objects, not just the ones we gave you) to challenge yourselves and keep growing.

10Wow, you found a lot of great examples of industrial, interior, systems, and experience design around your school! It is quite likely that some of the solutions you prototype for your design project will fall into one of these areas of design. Thank you for sharing all of these with us!

Thanks for taking a walk in someone else's shoes! Empathy is an important skill for designers to have--understanding the needs and experiences of the people you are designing for helps make your solution better!

10This sounds like a wonderful project, and we like that you're thinking about all the different "users" (or audiences) for this project, such as the students, the community, and the staff--including the janitors! You may find the Fresh Perspectives activity helpful as you consider how different types of users might have different behaviors, needs, motivations, and attitudes. Are you focusing inside the school or on the outside areas?

10We learned a lot from your picture and the information you shared! You identified a lot of kinds of litter that you see around your school...do you know if all of those kinds of litter are recyclable? It's also interesting that you have recycling bins that aren't used...what do you think that means? It seems like a small bin could easily fill up in the course of a school day. And we're curious to learn why the trash and recycling get mixed together when they are collected...is that supposed to happen? If not, why is it happening? You will surely learn a lot during your research!

20Great job capturing key characteristics of your different user groups! Remember the different needs and behaviors of these groups as you work through your design process so you can create a solution that works for many people. Keep up the good work!

10We are impressed with all of the hands-on reserach you did! It sounds like you learned a lot. Brionna also made an insightful comment...sometimes what you see doesn't quite match what you THOUGHT you would see. That's why it's important to get out and do your own research instead of relying on assumptions. It sounds like you have video to share...can you share it with us on Google drive or Dropbox? Keep up the good work!

10We like the way you used what you learned to reconsider your design challenge question. This week's photos were a bit fuzzy, so we couldn't read everything on your map, but your observation that students need to feel like they're part of something important is a good goal to brainstorm around--there could be lots of creative ways to approach that, and that would be a good way to motivate a change in behavior. What other needs or goals did you identify as takeaways? Do you need ways to sort different kinds of waste? Does it need to be quick and easy to do in order to get people to participate? Is it a goal of your solution to educate people about this problem? Do you need ways to motivate people to change their behavior?

16Thanks for watching this video and learning about some of the dangers of shallow research. It sounds like you've identified some good places to go further in your research to make sure you fully understand different needs, wishes, and constraints. Learning about these things will help you come up with solution ideas that work well. Nice job!

8It would be great if your solution could decrease littering, increase recycling, and introduce composting at Tilden--those are exciting goals! We also like that you're thinking about different ways to encourage people to do that--making it easy to start (accessible) is extremely important. Making it pleasant or attractive could also encourage higher rates of particiaption. And making it a habit--something people care enough to do--would be a huge step! Making it easy and pleasant are good steps toward making it a habit...are there other things that would help people care enough to develop this habit? Keep up the good work!

8You have very well-defined goals to brainstorm around--nice job!--and we're excited to see you've identified some different ways to achieve those goals. There are so many ways you could go with these goals and ideas to try to raise awareness, develop new habits, and keep it all lively and upbeat! Could composting become a project for the science class? What if a favorite staff or community member dressed up as a recycling mascot to roam the lunchroom and help students understand and get in the habit of separating recycling and trash? What if a funny alarm went off every time someone put a recyclable in the trash instead of in the recycling bin?

16These are wonderful pictures and the idea of using the recycling for something is very creative! That would be a fun way to show how materials can be re-used and it would bring visibility to your mission! Do you have an art teacher at your school? Maybe it could be a project in art class or a theme for a student art show that could be the start of your musem...so many possibilities!

8Excellent work creating your design concept sketches! We can see how you are improving your ideas as you think through them and draw them--and this is exactly why we start with sketching before we build. It looks like you worked well together, using all of the talents your team members have. We also like your attention to detail with things like coordinating the colors of the different kinds of receptacles you want in different places, with how you illustrate what people should be composting or recycling, and with who you depict doing what. This kind of attention to detail will make your solution ideas even better. Well done!

8Nice job! It's great that you are prototyping different ways to achieve your goal, including educating your peers through your PSAs, and making it easier for them to put waste where it belongs with different kinds of receptacles. Keep up the good work!

8These are great observations and things to look for when you go to test your prototypes! We're impressed with your thoughtful approach to your project and with all of the prototypes you are trying. Keep up the good work!

20We're glad you had a chance to connect with Mr. Anderson and that he had some good advice for you. He's very nice and very smart! Did he have any comments about the prototyping or testing you've been doing?

10Thank you for taking the time to send a high 5 to the Helping Hands and the Engineering Tigers. We appreciate your sharing your encouraging comments, and we're sure other teams will be happy to hear from you.

10Thanks for these fun pictures and videos of you testing your prototypes! We can tell you worked hard on your prototypes, and we're very impressed with all that you learned. You did a great job testing with different audiences...it's a good observation that 8th graders and 5th graders might respond differently. Keep up the good work!!!

Thanks for the great videos! Thinking on your feet and paying attention to what's happening in the moment are great skills to use when you are making a presentation or even when you are working within a team to communicate and develop ideas! We're so proud of you for all your great work this year!

8Thank you for submitting your essay, budget, and presentation plan. It looks like you were very thorough and did a good job explaining your project! Keep up the good work, and we look forward to seeing you at the ballpark on Tuesday!

16Way to go! We're glad you took some time to practice your presentation in front of an audience. The more you practice, the better and more comfortable you will be. We know you will give a great presentation!

Badges

Start Up- Zeroll Badge

Congratulations! You're starting to see things with a designer's eye. Great design comes from moments of discovery such as noticing a problem or an opportunity. Sherman Kelly did just that in 1933 when he noticed a young ice cream server who had blisters on her hands from dishing out hard ice cream. Kelly designed a new scoop made of cast aluminum that had fluid in the handle to transfer heat from a person's hand. This feature lightly softened the ice cream, making it easier to scoop. In addition, the scoop efficiently rolled the ice cream into balls and did not have breakable parts. TheZeroll scoop is one of the best in the business. You can even find one on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art!

Empathy- Better Shelter Badge

Thanks for taking a walk in someone else's shoes! Designers empathize deeply to understand the people they are helping, just as Ikea and Better Shelter did when they set out to create safer and more dignified housing for refugees. The resulting "flat pack" shelter can be assembled by 4 people in just 4 hours, is built to last three years, and features durable walls for privacy, windows for light, a locking door for security, and a solar panel that powers an overhead light and can charge a cell phone. Also, the ceiling is high enough to allow a person to stand up straight. Over 16,000 units have been distributed, and the shelter won the Design Museum of London's Beazley Design of the Year award in 2016.

Define - Woodland and Silver Badge:

Nice work! Research requires patience and persistence. Just ask Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, who were working and studying at Drexel in 1948 when they overheard a supermarket owner ask the school president for help developing an automated system to read product information at checkout. They settled on a design—the barcode—resembling linear Morse code and obtained a patent in 1952. But it took much more work over many years before their vision could be fully realized, and it was in 1974 that the first product—chewing gum—was scanned at checkout.

Ideate - AP Thailand Badge:

Way to get creative! It's not always easy to see everyday things or experiences with new eyes, but that's exactly what AP Thailand, a real estate company, did in a crowded neighborhood in Bangkok where there was no room to build soccer fields. AP Thailand literally thought outside the box and designed non-traditional fields to fit into spaces that were considered unusable. These unusual soccer fields are a hit with residents who now have a place to play their favorite sport.

Prototype - C.B.E. Badge:

Far out! Drinking out of a cup is something we take for granted, but in space, nothing is simple. Until recently, astronauts have had to drink from tubes inserted into special beverage pouches. Then, some engineers came up with an idea for a specially-shaped cup that uses principles of physics to keep liquid from floating away in the zero-gravity environment of the International Space Station. In 2015, astronauts on the ISS began using 3D printed prototypes of the cup as part of the Capillary Beverage Experiment (C.B.E.).

Test - Waymo Badge:

Now you get the picture…testing is very important! How else will you know that your idea solves your problem (and doesn’t cause unintended consequences)? In 2009 Google began testing concepts for a self-driving car, beginning with a retrofitted Prius operating on rural roads. As their design evolved, their testing became more sophisticated, moving onto highways and then to more complex urban environments. The self-driving car project, which Google spun off as an independent company called Waymo, has advanced its design so far that they are now conducting a public test of self-driving cars with residents of Phoenix, AZ.

DT Philly - StoryCorps Badge:

Hooray—you are on your way to getting your story out! You want your audience to empathize with the people you are designing for, and to understand the steps, goals, and outcomes of your design process and solution. Take a page from StoryCorps, an organization that collects and shares stories to help people understand one another’s experiences and perspectives. Story Corps uses audio recordings, pictures, and animations to bring stories to life. How will you tell the story of your project?